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PRESENTED BY 



AMOS TUCK 



AMOS TUCK 



BY 

CHARLES R. CORNING 



EXETER, N. H. 

GHje TtfefosslLcttcr Press 

1902 



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AMOS TUCK 



EVENTH in descent from Robert Tuck, 
, who, born at Gorlston, in the county of 
Suffolk, England, came to Hampton, New 
Hampshire, about 1638, was Amos Tuck. For 
a century and a half the family dwelt in the 
town chosen by its progenitor, but John Tuck, 
father of Amos, early in the nineteenth century, 
moved to Maine, taking up his abode in the 
town of Parsonsfield. There on the second day 
of August, 1810, Amos Tuck was born. His 
boyhood was associated with his father's farm 
and, save the determination for a college edu- 
cation, his early years moved on according to 
the cold routine of New England country life. 
Fortunately the youth's courage kept company 
with his ambition and each year found him 
nearer the door of the academy. In his seven- 
teenth year the boy dreams came true and 
the longed for opportunity for learning was 
at hand. First at the little academy in Effing- 



ham, not far distant from his father's farm, then 
at Hampton Academy, already a well known 
school, and from there to Dartmouth College in 
1 83 1. Among the students during Mr. Tuck's 
four years were Samuel G. Brown, subse- 
quently president of Hamilton College, Chand- 
ler E. Potter, the well remembered historian and 
antiquary, William C. Clarke, attorney-general 
of New Hampshire, Edwin D. Sanborn and 
John Lord, brilliant professors at Dartmouth, 
Samuel H. Taylor, famous as principal of Phil- 
lips Academy, Andover, Asa Fowler and Dan- 
iel Clark, afterwards political co-workers of Mr. 
Tuck, Joseph D. Webster, of brilliant military 
record in the civil war, Moody Currier, gover- 
nor of the state, Harry Hibbard, leader of the 
bar and eminent in public life, and William 
Warren Tucker, one of Boston's prominent 
merchants. Graduating in the class of 1835, 
Mr. Tuck accepted the position of assistant 
principal of Pembroke Academy, beginning his 
connection with the institution at the fall term 
of 1835. He remained there, however, only a 
few months, when he left to go to his old 
academy at Hampton, where he spent the next 
three years as principal. His influence on the 



subsequent life of the academy, of which he 
was long a trustee, was very marked. While 
principal he gave generously to its support, and 
in after years he remained one of its warmest 
friends and benefactors. To a person of Amos 
Tuck's mind and temperament, the profession 
of law seemed especially fitting, therefore he 
began diligently to study the books requisite 
for admission to the bar during his sojourn at 
Hampton. Notwithstanding separation from 
office practice and contact with clients and at- 
torneys, he made good progress in his studies, 
so that after a few months spent in the office of 
James Bell at Exeter, he was admitted to the 
Rockingham bar in 1838. Mr. Tuck was ex- 
ceedingly fortunate in associating himself with 
Mr. Bell, whose partner he became and con- 
tinued to be until 1846, when Mr. Bell moved 
to Laconia. Although the difference in age be- 
tween Mr. Tuck and Mr. Bell was but six years, 
Mr. Bell had then attained an enviable standing 
at the bar, and was commonly recognized as 
one of the strongest lawyers in the state. 

During this partnership, practice increased 
steadily, new clients were attracted and old 
clients retained, so that at the time of the dis- 



8 



solution the firm had become one of the largest 
and most successful in southern New Hamp- 
shire. The drudgery of his profession had no 
terrors for Mr. Tuck; he assumed burdens 
cheerfully and reduced their worries to a mini- 
mum. A buoyant optimistic disposition stood 
by him and to the end of his days never de- 
serted him. Added to this was an attractive 
personality, which had much to do toward win- 
ning strangers and making them his friends. 
He was courteous and kindly and loved hospi- 
tality and social intercourse with his neighbors. 
Thus equipped the young lawyer entered confi- 
dently into the battle of life. Exeter at that 
period enjoyed a high reputation. The early 
history of the town formed a strong background 
for the more stirring scenes of the Revolutionary 
era, while the military and civic repute of her 
citizens were among the proudest possessions 
in the annals of the state. Politically Exeter 
had long been a prominent town, for within her 
lovely precincts had convened the first Pro- 
vincial Congress, and there too had met those 
successive committees of safety with Meshech 
Weare at their head. Memories teeming with 
the past were impressed on one at every turn, 



giving to the old town a flavor peculiarly her 
own. For learning, too, Exeter had become a 
household name throughout the land, and this 
contributed to her fame and character. 

Moreover, the town had produced eminent 
sons whose achievements attracted thither many 
a young man destined to maintain the town's 
high standing. Exeter being a shire town and 
the center of a rich and populous section of the 
state, there was drawn thither a variety of busi- 
ness. Socially the people were noted for culture 
and hospitality, and strangers loved to visit the 
place and linger there. In every respect Exeter 
was peculiarly agreeable to Mr. Tuck, for he 
recognized her traditions and felt in honor 
bound to sustain them so far as he was able. 
Nor did he swerve from his early resolve. To 
his last hour the welfare of Exeter was upper- 
most in his heart. 

Nothing was more natural than that the young 
lawyer should take an active interest in politics, 
for few men ever possessed truer qualifications 
for sound political leadership than Mr. Tuck. 
Therefore only four years after his admission to 
the bar Exeter elected him one of the two rep- 
resentatives to the General Court, his colleague 



10 



being Josiah Robinson. Political conditions at 
that time were quiet, and save the excitement 
imparted to the state election by the vagaries 
of ex-Governor Isaac Hill, who was at odds 
with his party, the campaign was lacking in 
spirit. The straight Democratic or radical 
ticket went safely through to victory. Henry 
Hubbard was chosen governor, with both 
houses strongly in accord with the political 
opinions of the chief magistrate. The legis- 
lature met in June and organized with Josiah 
Quincy, president of the Senate, and Samuel 
Swasey and Harry Hibbard, speaker and clerk 
of the House. The Patriot classified the party 
standing of the legislature as one hundred and 
sixty-six Democrats and sixty-four Federalists, 
which it interpreted as " a rebuke to Isaac Hill 
and other traitors who make war upon the 
usages and practices of the party." Among 
the more prominent members of the House 
were John S. Wells, then of Lancaster, but for 
many years afterward a fellow townsman of 
Mr. Tuck in Exeter, Greenleaf Clark, John W. 
Noyes, Moses Norris, Jr., later senator in Con- 
gress, Amos A. Parker, who survived to the age 
of more than a hundred years, Daniel Clark, 



1 1 



another future senator, Caleb Blodgett and Dan- 
iel Blaisdell. 

Mr. Tuck was enumerated a Democrat, while 
his colleague, Mr. Robinson, was put down as a 
Federalist, a divided condition of the Exeter 
General Court representation not long tolerated, 
inasmuch as the election the following year sent 
Gilman Marston and two Federalist associates. 
The speaker assigned Mr. Tuck to the commit- 
tee of the judiciary, which in those days as in the 
present was the leading committee of the House. 
The chairman was Moses Norris, Jr., a rep- 
resentative from Pittsfield. It so happened 
that the session was of more than usual life and 
importance. The condition of the courts had 
become a matter of interest with Mr. Tuck, for 
he recognized the imperfections of the existing 
system and worked sanely for their improve- 
ment, by offering shortly after the session began 
a resolution instructing the committee of the 
judiciary to inquire whether or not any change 
is necessary in the judicial system of the state. 
Although the subject received no immediate 
action at that time, it was, as events proved, 
merely laid aside for future discussion. This 
session was the one that chose a successor to 



12 



Franklin Pierce, who, at the early age of thirty- 
seven, had sent to the governor a letter resign- 
ing his seat in the Senate of the United States. 
The contest for the seat, if any there was, 
aroused slight attention, for the House gave one 
hundred and seventy of its two hundred and 
nineteen votes to Leonard Wilcox, of Orford. 
The real work of the session was that connected 
with the revision of the statutes, a labor involv- 
ing so much care and consideration as to render 
haste a perilous experiment. Mr. Tuck, there- 
fore, spoke in opposition to adjourning the legis- 
lature to November, believing that the work 
could be done in June and July if the members 
would only apply themselves to the task before 
them. That view, however, was an unpopular 
one to urge among New Hampshire farmers in 
the midst of the haying season, therefore it did 
not prevail. Congress had recently passed an 
act directing the states to choose congressmen 
by districts instead of by the old method of a 
general ticket, whereat the legislature of 1842 
stood on the dignity of state sovereignty and by 
a vote of one hundred and sixty to eighty an- 
nounced to the Washington government that 
New Hampshire declined to redistrict the state 



13 

in conformity with the act. But New Hamp- 
shire soon changed her mind on that question 
and conformed to the new and fairer custom. 
One of the great questions before the legisla- 
ture related to the policy to be followed in the 
chartering of railroads, then a new proceeding in 
New Hampshire, and Mr. Tuck seemed to have 
created considerable excitement by offering a 
resolution calling on the Superior Court justices 
for their opinion concerning railroad corpora- 
tions. There followed a long discussion and his 
motion was laid on the table. In July the legis- 
lature adjourned to November, when the mem- 
ber from Exeter soon showed himself a leader 
in debate on the engrossing subject of revision 
of the laws. As each chapter, section by sec- 
tion, called for debate, it afforded an excellent 
opportunity to a man of Amos Tuck's trained 
mind and ready speech, and from the news- 
paper reports of the time it is clear that Mr. 
Tuck embraced the opportunity. Again the 
judiciary question appeared, with Mr. Tuck 
taking a leading part in the discussion. His 
plan was to appoint three circuit judges, one of 
whom with the county judges was to hold two 
terms of the Court of Common Pleas in each 



14 

county annually, while the Superior Court of 
Judicature was to hold similar terms. To re- 
duce the membership of the latter court he 
argued that when the number of justices be- 
came three, then that was to be the per- 
manent number. His proposed system was 
not a radical overturn ; it merely tended to 
expedite business. That Mr. Tuck was a quick 
and ready debater was illustrated by the part 
he took in a question starting from a trivial 
cause, which engaged the House and continued 
for two days. It came about on the proposition 
to amend the statute relating to licensing shows. 
A member advocated the licensing of mesmer- 
ists, whereupon Mr. Tuck made a bright speech 
in opposition, saying that such legislation ought 
to go side by side with witchcraft ; we might as 
well, he exclaimed, license abolitionism and 
phrenology, and thus put a disgrace on New 
Hampshire. It was at this session that the 
House chose Charles G. Atherton to a full term 
in the Senate from the 4th of March, 1843. 
Looking at this incident in the light of subse- 
quent events, when one traces the course of 
Tuck and Atherton in the great slavery contests, 
is exceedingly suggestive to say the least. 



15 

With the adjournment of the legislature late 
in December, Mr. Tuck ended his first experi- 
ence as a public man. The three years follow- 
ing saw him busily engaged in his profession 
and advancing steadily in the estimation of his 
associates and in the esteem of his clients. 
Already he began to be looked upon as a 
singularly promising candidate for political 
honors, nor is it unlikely that he himself in- 
dulged in hopes of such preferment. The 
Democratic party to which he belonged held 
fast control of the state, and its leaders were 
not insensible to the advantages to be derived 
by putting forward young and ambitious men. 

His course in the legislature had attracted 
public attention his way and placed his name 
high on the waiting list of coming favorites. 
But events were soon to prove that Amos Tuck 
was not made in the pattern of politicians and 
time servers. It was found that this gentle, 
unaggressive man did his own thinking and 
reached his conclusions without reference to 
party and popularity. To most people this 
seemed surprisingly short sighted, and so it was 
when tested by party rules and discipline. But 
it was the making of Amos Tuck and his title 



16 



to imperishable renown in the political history 
of New Hampshire. He dared to do right at a 
time when every worldly consideration, personal 
to himself, coaxed him to do wrong. The story 
is a noble one and furnishes its own splendid ex- 
ample. Taking counsel of his own conscience, 
Amos Tuck acted a part unsurpassed in the 
history of that period. The annexation of Texas 
was the question agitating the country and it 
gave him his opportunity. In February, 1845, 
Mr. Tuck writes to a friend, " I am of the 
opinion that it is scarcely possible to be a lead- 
ing politician in New Hampshire and retain 
respect for one's self. I have often been told 
that I stand well for high office, and that I may 
reasonably expect it. But I cannot measure 
out my opinions by caucus resolutions, manu- 
factured by unscrupulous and unsound men ; 
consequently I certify you that I shall not rise 
at present." Superb, indeed, were sentiments 
like these, and welcome was the sequel. The 
attempt of the Democrats, under the leadership 
of Franklin Pierce, to ostracise John P. Hale, 
marked politically the most important step in 
Amos Tuck's career. A Democrat like Hale, 
Mr. Tuck refused utterly to obey the com- 



17 

mands of the party, and when Mr. Hale pub- 
lished his famous anti-Texas letter early in 1845, 
he found no more determined and faithful sup- 
porter than the young lawyer from Exeter. 
The history of that famous congressional con- 
test when Hale ran as an independent and 
which after repeated elections resulted in no 
choice is familiar to New Hampshire people. 
Mr. Hale, although failing of success himself, 
had the satisfaction of seeing how impossible it 
was to elect his Democratic competitor, who 
lacked more than a thousand votes. The 
Independent Democrats, skilfully led by Mr. 
Tuck, were now a force in New Hampshire 
politics. The outcome of the Hale contest 
was the overthrow of the regular Democratic 
party at the March election of 1846. The 
Whigs and the Independents carried the legis- 
lature, chose Anthony Colby, a Whig, as gov- 
ernor and sent John P. Hale to the United 
States Senate as the first distinctively anti-sla- 
very senator. The legislature also separated 
the state into four congressional districts, there- 
by repudiating the state rights manifesto put 
forth by the legislature of 1842. The part 
taken by Amos Tuck in bringing about the 



i8 



revolt of the Independent Democrats at this 
time comprises an important chapter in our 
political history. To understand the causes 
underlying the momentous epoch of our na- 
tional history — -the epoch beginning in 1845, 
and ending with the civil war, one must become 
familiar with what took place in New Hamp- 
shire in the initial years of that epoch. We have 
already seen how Mr. Tuck and his friends ral- 
lied round the cause of John P. Hale, but it is 
necessary to go a little deeper into the annals 
of the time. In the significant words of the 
Exeter News-Letter, in an issue during the sum- 
mer of 1901, is found the following sentiment: 
" It is a pity that our younger citizens do not 
have a clear memory of Amos Tuck, for there 
were events in his life that should not be for- 
gotten." A clear recollection of the exciting 
events clustering around the years in question 
would reveal to the present generation a young 
man fresh at the bar, an aspiring member of 
the dominant political party of his section and 
of the state, with his career wholly in his own 
hands, deliberately flinging to the winds of party 
fury, associates, influential clients, wealth and 
place, and boldly coming out into the open and 



19 

challenging public opinion and the power of 
party organization in the name of personal 
independence and human liberty. Briefly that 
was what Amos Tuck did in the year 1845. It 
was as brave an act as the capture of Fort Wil- 
liam and Mary, and as important in the results 
that followed. As the taking of the fort was 
the first overt act in the Revolution, so the re- 
volt of Amos Tuck and his comrades proved 
to be the first overt act in the disruption of a 
great party as well as the first determined polit- 
ical step in the overthrow of negro slavery. 
New Hampshire has still a duty to perform in 
preserving the history making deeds of her 
courageous sons. 

At the February term of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas at Exeter, Mr. Tuck and John L. 
Hayes issued a call for a meeting of Indepen- 
dent Democrats, to convene in that town on the 
22d of February, 1845. There Mr. Tuck be- 
gan his public career for union and freedom. 
Some day, let us hope, we may see the history 
of New Hampshire's part in that movement, 
which like a stone flung into the springs of a 
river changed the current of the stream forever- 
more. The Texas question was uppermost in 



20 



the public mind, and some men ceased to look 
through a glass darkly. Organized opposition 
became an imperative duty to men whose souls 
remained unmortgaged to party, and so it came 
to pass that the meeting in the court room 
sowed the seeds that later on brought forth so 
bountiful a harvest. Agitation spread as a for- 
est fire all through 1845, wrtn the unsuccessful 
attempts to beat Hale for Congress, down to the 
famous March election of 1846. During the 
Twenty-ninth Congress the First district re- 
mained unrepresented at Washington, and the 
prospects for the Thirtieth Congress seemed 
but little better. The district comprising the 
counties of Strafford and Rockingham now be- 
came the scene of an exciting and memorable 
contest. As the March election of 1847 drew 
near, attention was turned to the New Hamp- 
shire district, for the contest had now assumed 
a national importance. For the seat in Con- 
gress the Whigs nominated Ichabod Goodwin, 
the Democrats nominated Benning W. Jenness, 
while the Independent Democrats put forward 
Amos Tuck. 

To the convention that had nominated him, 
Mr. Tuck sent as courageous and manly a letter 



21 



of acceptance as the most earnest lover of lib- 
erty could desire. Marked by no uncertain 
tone, weakened by no spirit of compromise, the 
letter in itself was a party platform of remark- 
able strength. 

Exeter, Nov. 20, 1846. 

To Rev. James C. Boswell, President, and Samuel A. 
Haley, Esq., Secretary, &c. 

Gentlemen: — I have received your letter of October 24th, in 
reference to the proceedings at the Convention of Independ- 
ent Democrats and Liberty men of the First Congressional 
District, and I embrace the earliest opportunity which my en- 
gagements have allowed to send you an answer. 

I believe it to be the object of those assembled at the above 
named convention, to re-affirm the fundamental principles of 
republican liberty, and to act out with fearless devotion the 
doctrines of human equality and universal justice. Entertaining 
these views, I rejoice in their free expression, and am content 
to stand or fall with the others in their defense. 

Two causes have contributed more than all others to effect 
the late change in the political balance of parties. The first 
has been the despotism of party power, by which generous 
impulses have been repressed and discouraged, the exercise of 
private judgment made dangerous, and all individuality of 
character sought to be extinguished, by compelling men to be- 
lieve, or to profess, those sentiments only which were sug- 
gested by a selfish and ever-shifting policy and sanctioned by 
self-constituted party leaders. No tyranny is more galling than 
that which would quench the free thoughts of free men; no 
tyrants are more despicable than those who, " dressed in a lit- 



22 



tie brief authority," would attempt in a democracy to exer- 
cise the power and the prerogatives of hereditary despots; no 
engine of influence is more dangerous or more execrable than 
a hireling press, speaking no words for truth or justice, but de- 
voting all its energies to the perpetration of human servitude. 
To free New Hampshire from such influences, and to expose 
in their deformity those who had wielded them too long, was 
one object in our organization, and this object, I rejoice in be- 
lieving, has been in a good degree accomplished. 

The second and chief cause of the late change has been the 
existence and progressing power of the institution of slavery. 
The encroachments of the slave-holding interests, and the sub- 
serviency of public men to its numerous exactions, have been 
so exorbitant and so notorious as to have become just cause of 
alarm to every friend of humanity and the country. The peo- 
ple, irrespective of party, have at length turned their atten- 
tion to the subject, and by unequivocal manifestations are 
teaching their public servants that hereafter other things will 
be expected of them than a base and servile homage to the 
dark spirit of slavery; that some efforts will be demanded 
at their hands, more efficient than a " masterly inactivity," 
or a halting opposition to an abstract idea ; that it is time for 
them to stand up like men, and, echoing the strong voice of a 
free people, to say to the sweeping tide of oppression, " thus 
far and no farther." The inquiry now is, what can be done, 
what can Congress do to free the master and the slave and the 
nation from the sin and the retributions of slavery? Of cow- 
ardly discussion about the extent of our powers we have had 
enough. The exigency of the country as well as the spirit of 
the age require now the performance of those acts whose con- 
stitutionality and propriety are beyond reasonable doubt. 
They require that the shadow of slavery shall no longer 
darken the District of Columbia, and that the trader in human 



23 

beings shall no longer be permitted to shelter himself from 
the scorn of the Christian world beneath the wings of the 
national capitol. They require that no new slave state, with a 
constitution recognizing slavery, shall hereafter be admitted to 
the Union, and that no existing state, whether Texas or Flori- 
da, shall be dismembered to subserve the slave holding in- 
terest. They require that the domestic, inter-state slave trade, 
a traffic in no respect less infamous than that foreign slave 
trade which has been branded by the civilized world as piracy, 
shall, under the clause in the Constitution which gives power 
to Congress, "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and 
among the several states,' 1 '' be utterly and forever prohibited. 
They require that the labor and interest of the free states 
should be respected, and that slavery be no longer permitted 
to give character to our legislation. 

Let the people of the free states come now to the rescue of 
freedom and the Constitution, and something may be done to 
perpetuate the Union, — let them be found wanting in this 
trial of their integrity, and let the South for a few years more 
continue unchecked her schemes in behalf of slavery, and no 
human power can prevent a dissolution. For the sake then of 
the Union, let the people of the free states be careful to dis- 
cern and perform on this subject the duties of patriotism and 
humanity. 

One ot'- a subject claims attention. The present war with 
Mexico cannot be lost sight of in any discussion of the public 
interest. Originating in the unauthorized and iniquitous 
scheme of the annexation of Texas, it is now prosecuted with- 
out that public necessity which can justify us on the page of 
impartial history, and with no prospect of " conquering a 
peace," or effecting an honorable reconciliation. It has be- 
come a war of conquest, and as such is in violation of every 
principle of a popular government, as well as of every precept 



24 

of Christianity. It is adding immense territory to the southern 
portion of the country, and is thus threatening to destroy the 
balance of the states, and to consign the nation more hopelessly 
to the control of slaveholders. It is waged against a neigh- 
boring nation, a younger republic, which for years, in weakness 
and distraction, endeavored to follow the example of our pros- 
pering nation; and as such, the war is disgraceful and mean. 
It is carried on at the expense of the blood of brave men, 
whose valor is worthy of a better cause, and has already ex- 
hausted the treasury of the country, and involved the nation in 
a heavy debt. Under these circumstances there can be no 
doubt that the honor and best interests of the country demand 
a speedy end of the contest, and that all matters in dispute be 
settled by arbitration or negotiation. 

I have thus spoken briefly of some of the topics suggested 
by your resolutions. It remains for me simply to acknowledge 
my deep sense of the honor which your nomination has confer- 
red upon me. If it is thought that my acceptance of this nomi- 
nation can subserve the interests of the cause in which we are 
engaged, I shall not feel at liberty to shrink from the position 
in which you have placed me; but shall remain, 

Your obedient servant, 

Amos Tuck. 

How thoroughly the anti-Texas and anti- 
slavery extension men had done their work was 
surprisingly manifest the day after election. It 
was a repetition of the Hale contest in every 
respect. The followers of Tuck held the bal- 
ance of power and refused utterly to abandon 



25 

him. The vote stood — Jenness, 6274; Good- 
win, 5662; Tuck, 21 14; with nearly a hundred 
scattering. Such were the conditions that but 
one candidate could be elected and that candi- 
date was the leader of the revolt. The gover- 
nor called a special election for the 8th of July, 
1847. The ending of the deadlock lay in the 
hands of the Whigs, inasmuch as a coalition 
between them and the Independents would cer- 
tainly win. The Whigs, therefore, called a con- 
vention to consider the situation, and a ballot 
was taken with Tuck, Daniel M. Christie and 
John Kelly as candidates, which disclosed sev- 
enty-seven votes for Tuck and twenty-four for 
all others. Mr. Tuck having now been en- 
dorsed by the Whigs, there was little doubt 
respecting the outcome of that second trial of 
strength in July, when Jenness received 3927 
votes as against Mr. Tuck's 5584. Pro-slavery 
and pro-Texas Democracy had suffered defeat 
in the stronghold state of Northern Democrats. 
The bitterness of the hour is reproduced by 
this editorial in the Patriot, July 22, 1847: 
" That the patriotic people of New Hampshire 
should in time of war, when the country de- 
mands patriotic servants more than ever, be 



26 



disgraced by electing two men to Congress 
(Tuck and James Wilson), whose whole efforts 
have been and are and will be employed to em- 
barrass our government and give aid to the 
enemy is lamentable. But apathy did it." That 
rancorous party journal was so carried away 
by its feeling as to call Mr. Tuck " a man of 
straw, a seventh rate lawyer and a bob to Hale's 
kite." Blind to the real causes of the party 
rout, the Patriot sought to assuage its grief by 
attributing the result to the Federals — the allies 
of Tuck, to lukewarmness and to the non-at- 
tendance of farmers and laboring men. No 
doubt that the journal was truthful in declaring 
the election to be a source of mortifying regret 
and disappointment. But the Statesman, a 
staunch Whig newspaper, sang a different song. 
" We have rarely had it in our power to record 
a more gratifying piece of political intelligence 
than the election of Amos Tuck as a member 
of Congress from the first district. Patriotism 
over party attachments in the free North and 
over the deceits and artifices of the Democracy 
will create an enthusiasm as wide as the Union." 
In another issue it said, "New Hampshire is 
sound on the Wilmot Proviso, hence the sneers 



2/ 

cast at the conscientious and fearless Tuck ever 
since he took ground in support of John P. 
Hale ; but let us rejoice in the inspiration of 
the new and glorious cause of liberty versus 
slavery, of the true versus the false Democracy ; 
let us give praise that again honest men sit in 
the seats of the Bells, the Bartletts and the 
Whipples." 

For the next six years Mr. Tuck continued 
to represent in Congress not only the changed 
political complexion of his district and state, 
but the changing condition throughout the 
North. In the vigor of manhood, being one of 
the youngest members of Congress as well as 
the first distinctively elected anti-slavery Inde- 
pendent, he performed his duties with ability 
and firmness. His record was honorable and 
useful, and his popularity withstood the assaults 
of three exciting and vituperative contests for 
his seat in the lower house. While his congres- 
sional career was unmarked by great distinc- 
tion, it was above that of a large majority of 
his associates, and when he retired from Con- 
gress he carried with him not only the respect 
of those that differed from him, but the lasting 
friendship of his anti-slavery followers. Henry 



28 



Wilson sums up Mr. Tuck's congressional 
career in this appreciative manner: "His chief 
distinction, and perhaps his chief service, how- 
ever, grew out of his bold and wise leadership 
in that first and successful assault upon the 
party which had for years controlled the state 
with iron sway ; beating down the very Gibral- 
tar of the Northern Democracy, and making it 
one of the leading and most reliable states in 
opposition to the slave power." The Thir- 
tieth Congress, to which Mr. Tuck had been 
elected, did not convene until the first Monday 
in December, 1847. Historically this Con- 
gress was distinguished in many respects. It 
marked a radical departure from orthodox 
Democratic faith and purpose, and went on 
record as opposed to the pro-slavery tenets of 
the Polk administration. Curiously, too, the 
Thirtieth Congress represented the protest of 
the people against an administration then 
waging a strong and victorious war, and more 
curious still it seemed to set itself against the 
glorious achievements of generals of its own 
political faith. Moreover, the Congress was an 
interesting one, inasmuch as from its member- 
ship were drawn so many of the prominent 



29 

leaders of a great party organization, not then 
even in existence, yet destined a few years later 
to assume the responsibility of government and 
conduct the republic through the perils of 
unprecedented war. And in that same Con- 
gress there sat members whose names shone 
brightly in the annals of a confederacy whose 
life was coexistent with that unprecedented con- 
flict. Furthermore, that Congress contained a 
most remarkable number of men who were 
already distinguished by public service as well 
as a larger number whose fame lay in the future. 
To the spectator in the Senate galleries there 
appeared on the floor many senators bearing 
distinguished names. Daniel Webster was 
there, having entered on his last term of ser- 
vice. There, too, were Calhoun, Benton, Dick- 
inson, John A. Dix, Simon Cameron, Hannibal 
Hamlin, Reverdy Johnson, John M. Clayton, 
William Allen and Thomas Corwin, his col- 
league, Mason, of Virginia, with a double claim 
to memory because of his Fugitive Slave Bill 
and the " Trent " case, Stephen A. Doug- 
lass, afire with ambition to be president of 
the republic, the youngest of all aspirants ; 
Badger, of North Carolina, a leader at once of 



30 

the Whigs and of the Supreme Court; John 
Bell, Herschel V. Johnson, the erratic Sam 
Houston, the wayward and brilliant Hannegan, 
of Indiana, Butler, of South Carolina, King, of 
Alabama, Jefferson Davis and Henry S. Foote, 
and last but not least among these leaders in 
speech and act, was John P. Hale, portraying in 
his head and heart the eternal protest of New 
Hampshire against the aggressions of slaveoc- 
racy. Passing to the House of Representatives 
the spectator looked upon a set of men whose 
personality meant so much to the country, and 
yet no one at that hour discerned the mighty 
part reserved for more than one member of 
that already distinguished body. One member 
in particular, serving his first and only term in 
Congress, was destined by fate in after years to 
enact one of the grandest parts ever played on 
the world's stage. Yet few knew him or for a 
while remembered him, save for the circum- 
stance that he was the only Whig in the Illinois 
delegation. That was Abraham Lincoln. A 
few seats away sat Andrew Johnson, then enter- 
ing on his third term as representative from 
Tennessee. Among members whose names 
were known beyond their own districts were 



3i 

George P. Marsh and Jacob Collamer, of Ver- 
mont, Robert C. Winthrop, John G. Palfrey, 
George Ashmun, and Horace Mann, of Massa- 
chusetts, Charles J. Ingersoll, William Strong, 
of Pennsylvania, and their colleague, David 
Wilmot, who by his famous resolution had 
become a marked character. One of the Mary- 
land members was Robert McLane, and near 
him sat John Minor Botts, of Virginia. Alfred 
Iverson, subsequently a senator from Georgia, 
had among his colleagues Alexander H. Ste- 
phens, Robert Toombs, and Howell Cobb. The 
courtly Henry W. Hilliard was a leader in the 
Alabama delegation, as was Linn Boyd in the 
delegation from Kentucky. Ohio sent eminent 
men in Joshua R. Giddings, Joseph M. Root, 
Samuel F. Vinton, and Robert C. Schenck. 
With the first two Mr. Tuck soon became more 
than intimate. Indiana contributed a pair of 
future cabinet ministers in Caleb B. Smith and 
Richard W. Thompson, while Michigan did the 
same in Robert McClelland. 

Mr. Tuck's colleagues from New Hampshire 
were Charles H. Peaslee, James H. Johnson, and 
James Wilson, one of the most popular of 
Whig campaign orators. There was another 



32 

son of the Granite State, a giant in stature and 
already famous throughout the West, who came 
to this Congress bearing credentials from the 
young city of Chicago, John Wentworth. 

The previous Congress had been Democratic, 
but its successor was of a different political 
complexion. The Whigs, however, had a ma- 
jority more apparent than real, for three mem- 
bers really held the balance between them and 
the Democrats, and those three men were strong 
and uncompromising anti-slavery men. They 
were Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, John G. 
Palfrey, of Massachusetts, and Amos Tuck. 
They were counted as Whigs, two were so 
affiliated, but Tuck could not be so classed. 
His political predelictions had been Demo- 
cratic, but the war with Mexico and its con- 
sequences had put him squarely on the ground 
occupied by John P. Hale, which left him with- 
out a party. Mr. Tuck stood for the Wilmot 
Proviso and the results likely to follow it, there- 
fore it is incorrect to assign him to either of the 
great parties. Historically he represented the 
germ of the Free Soil movement and its heir, 
the Republican party. The contest for speaker 
was exciting. The Whig candidate was Robert 



33 

C. Winthrop, while the opposition was split 
between Linn Boyd, a straight Democrat, and 
Robert McClelland, of Michigan, a Wilmot 
Proviso Democrat. It is evident that Mr. Gid- 
dings exercised considerable influence over Mr. 
Tuck, for Mr. Tuck recognized him as a leader 
of the new policy against pro-slavery. But 
Mr. Tuck, a scholar himself and a man of gentle 
disposition, must have recognized in Mr. Win- 
throp many congenial qualities, sufficiently so 
to have controlled his vote as between Winthrop 
and his Democratic competitors. 

When the House voted for speaker the first 
time six members classed as Whigs refused to 
vote for Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Tuck being of the 
number. He and Giddings voted for James 
Wilson, of New Hampshire. Ex-President John 
Quincy Adams, while not an out and out 
Winthrop man, now that his colleague lacked 
but one on the second ballot, urged Palfrey to 
vote for Winthrop, while Ashmun, of Massa- 
chusetts, pleaded with Mr. Tuck. Meanwhile 
the clerk called the roll for the third ballot, 
when a South Carolina member walked out 
of the hall, thus making by his absence the 
requisite number to elect Winthrop. The 



34 

speaker appointed Mr. Tuck a member of the 
committees on Naval Affairs and Expenditures 
of the Navy Department, two good assignments 
and in glaring contrast to his committee ap- 
pointments in the Thirty-first and the Thirty- 
second Congresses, when the Democratic speak- 
ers put him on " Revolutionary Pensions." 

By that time, however, Mr. Tuck had become 
a recognized leader of the detested Free Soilers, 
and Democratic ostracism was meted out to him. 
But Mr. Tuck was neither lost in his surround- 
ings nor unmindful of the mission that called 
him to Washington. Scarcely had he done 
more than to learn the names of the members 
sitting near him when he offered one of the fire 
brand resolutions of the period. On the 30th 
of December he presented a petition prohibit- 
ing international slave trade and also another 
petition from citizens of Philadelphia praying 
Congress to expend the proceeds of public land 
sales for the extinction of slavery in the United 
States. By this time he had become well 
known to Southern members, and as a steadfast 
friend of Giddings he was disliked accordingly. 
Whatever doubts there may have been respect- 
ing his outspoken sentiments toward slavery, 



35 

they were removed during the sitting of the 
19th of January, 1848. Mr. Tuck occupied 
more than an hour, during which he made one 
of the strongest and manliest of anti-slavery 
speeches, one that brought courage to Free 
Soilers everywhere and convinced the people 
of New Hampshire that the state had at last 
found her voice. 

The House was in committee of the whole 
on the President's message when Mr. Tuck 
gained the floor. He traced the history of 
slavery in Mexico and its abolition, and then 
passing to the annexation question, which he 
showed was once opposed by the Democracy 
in New Hampshire, who looked upon it as a 
scheme " black as ink and dark as hell," he con- 
tinued in these words : " Slavery and the 
defence of slavery form the controlling consid- 
erations urged in favor of the treaty (of an- 
nexation) by those who have been engaged in its 
negotiation. To these doctrines we can never 
subscribe; and whenever they are offensively 
urged upon the Free States, they deserve to be 
pointedly rebuked." 

" I lay the above extracts before the Southern 
branch of the Democracy, hoping that they will 



36 



understand the true character of their Northern 
allies. The same men who uttered the above 
sentiments as matters of principle from which 
they could never swerve, in less than three 
months denied, utterly reprobated, the faith 
they had professed ; and have ever since em- 
ployed their time in abusing the men who 
would not sacrifice their principle at the same 
time. The Democratic" leaders in New Hamp- 
shire at the present time are the men who 
have made this somerset in their confession of 
faith ; who cry out ' moral cowards,' ' enemies 
of their country,' and ' Mexican Federalists,' 
while they know in their hearts they are the 
most arrant moral cowards alive, and that there 
is no principle in any creed which they would 
not sacrifice for a reward. They have been 
called Northern men with Southern principles, 
but this is an imputation on the South to which 
I will not subscribe. They are Northern men 
with no principles at all. Had they been men 
of Southern principles, of any principles what- 
ever, they would not have made such a humili- 
ating exhibition. I will not say that these men 
would not rather be right than wrong ; indeed, 
I think they would have chosen to follow the 



17 

Van Buren Democracy, which they expected 
would prevail ; but the virtue which they pos- 
sess is not all adapted to a state of temptation. 
When the Baltimore convention sacrificed Mr. 
Van Buren, and adopted an unknown candidate 
and a new creed of faith ; and when Mr. Ritchie 
published the significant fact ' that they who 
did not go for annexation need expect nothing 
from the new administration,' the trial was too 
strong for them. They hailed the new nomi- 
nation as 'the very best that could be made;' 
and, in respect to Texas, fulfilled to the letter 
the prophecy of the eccentric statesman of 
Roanoke, when, in 1820, he addressed just such 
a class of men on the floor of this House. 
Turning to the representatives who had betrayed 
the North in the Missouri compromise, Mr. 
Randolph, pointing to each one separately, said, 
' You Northern dough faces ! we have bought 
you once, and when we want you we will buy 
you again dog-cheap.' But, sir, I am happy to 
say that this class of politicians is small in the 
North, and is daily becoming less. The people, 
though confiding too long in their leaders, are 
beginning to understand them, and cast them 
off. The people may be deceived, but they 
cannot be corrupted." 



38 

Referring to Secretary Buchanan's interpreta- 
tion of the government's attitude toward slavery, 
Mr. Tuck said: "We discard this novel con- 
struction and pronounce it an infraction and an 
outrage upon the rights of the free states. The 
Constitution neither requires nor authorizes the 
General Government to wield its powers in 
defence of slavery. Such a representation of 
the nature of the compact between the states of 
this Union, made by our secretary of state to 
the representative of the English nation, was a 
slander upon our country and an indignity 
upon the memory of our fathers. The lives, 
characters, and circumstances as well as the 
letter and spirit of the Constitution, proved that 
they formed no agreement to sustain oppres- 
sion. When they assembled to form a Consti- 
tution, those from the North came with undis- 
guised abhorrence of slavery, which their habits, 
principles, and religious education taught them 
to be morally wrong. They were not men to 
compromise their principles by involving them- 
selves in guilt. They were crowned with laurels 
from the revolutionary conflict, and had just 
written with their blood the truth, that ' all men 
are born free and equal;' and that 'the right 



39 

to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is 
inalienable.' They had no belief that the natu- 
ral rights of a colored man were different from 
those of the white man ; their sentiment was — 

" We know no crime in colored skin, 
Nor think the God above 
Could fix the brand of slave upon 
The children of his love." 

'* Such was the sentiment of the men of the 
North, who had periled their lives, their fort- 
unes, and their sacred honor in defence of the 
principles of universal liberty, and of the doc- 
trine that liberty is the gift of God, and not of 
any government or potentate. With such sen- 
timents they went to the work of forming a 
constitution. They believed that when the 
child first breathed, he was furnished with a 
charter from God, which secured to him life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This 
sentiment has been their inspiring faith during 
every stage of the Revolution, and it never en- 
tered into their hearts to sacrifice it for any 
earthly consideration whatever." 

Continuing Mr. Tuck said : " We say to the 
South, take to yourselves the full measure of 
good and evil connected with this subject. We 



40 



can have nothing to do with it; we can neither 
touch nor handle, cherish nor protect it. We 
leave it where our fathers left it; and, though 
we regard it as the sum of all evils, we shall yet 
overstep no law in our desire to see it extermi- 
nated. 

" We ask not ye shall snap the links 

That bind you to your dreadful slaves; 

Hug, if you will, a corpse that stinks, 
And bear it with you to your graves; 

But that you may go, coupled thus, 
You never shall make slaves of us." 

"Are gentlemen surprised at the anti-slavery 
excitement in this country? If there were no 
excitement, it would be proof that the spirit of 
liberty is dead. There not only is excitement, 
but that excitement will continue and increase, 
till the free states, under the guarantees of the 
Constitution, can enjoy exemption from slavery. 
I cannot promise quiet to the slave states even 
then ; never, till they get rid of their peculiar 
institution, which is derogatory to man, and in 
violation of the laws of God. The compensa- 
tions of Providence are inevitable, and the 
South cannot escape reaping the fruits of their 
institutions. 



4i 

"I know what denunciations are hurled 
against those who express the sentiments I 
have avowed. But I cannot regard them ; my 
convictions are deep, and my course is plain. 
I trust I shall never betray myself, or my 
country, by giving 'aid and comfort' to a war 
which I believe is wrong, dishonorable and 
dangerous. Burke, Barre, and Chatham stood 
by their country in the time of our Revolution, 
and gave advice, remonstrance, and solemn 
warning, which, if followed, would have saved 
to England her colonies. In the belief that 
even the humblest member of this House has 
the opportunity to imitate their glorious ex- 
ample, I shall denounce the Mexican war, ex- 
pose the reckless ambition of its authors, 
and, to the extent of my ability, warn the 
people against its consequences. If this be 
treason, my revilers may make the most of it." 
A speech of that nature coming from one 
who but a few months before had been one of 
the younger leaders of the Granite State Dem- 
ocracy was full of significance. From that 
hour Amos Tuck stood forth an unyielding 
representative of the rising conscience of the 
North. From him no concession could be ex- 



42 

pected : he had entered his name in the great 
ledger of liberty. A few days after his speech 
he offered a petition from citizens of New 
Hampshire calling for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia, coupled with com- 
pensation to slave owners, and twice in March, 
1848, he presented similar petitions. In April 
Cummins, of Ohio, offered a resolution tender- 
ing the congratulations of the people of the 
United States to the people of France on the 
overthrow of Louis Philippe, whereupon 
Schenck, of the same state, and Ashmun, of 
Massachusetts, tried to amend the resolution 
by congratulating the new French republic on 
its promise of speedy emancipation in its col- 
onies. This brought upon the House a flood 
of exciting oratory and covered the question 
with pro-slavery and anti-slavery sentiments. 
Among those participating were McClelland, 
Hilliard, Charles J. Ingersoll, Giddings, Tuck, 
and others. This debate illustrates the sensi- 
tive condition of Congress by showing how im- 
possible it was to discuss any public question 
without introducing that all-pervading moral 
issue of slavery, which politicians of the time 
considered a mere ism confined to a few hun- 



43 

dred bigots in New England. The French res- 
olution unamended finally passed the House 
with only two dissenting votes out of one hun- 
dred and seventy-six, Mr. Tuck voting with the 
majority. But anti-slavery did not occupy all 
Mr. Tuck's attention, for he offered various 
petitions asking for harbor improvements at 
Portsmouth, for increased mail routes in New 
Hampshire, and also a petition signed by W. 
H. Y. Hackett and others praying Congress to 
purchase Mount Vernon. But, like the ghost 
in the play, slavery would stalk persistently 
through the halls of Congress, no matter how 
foreign to slavery the question in debate might 
be. In varying petitions, all relating to the 
cause of freedom, Mr. Tuck continued active, 
and on the 1st of August he made a short 
speech which in effectiveness and eloquent ear- 
nestness was unsurpassed in that Congress. 
The committee of the whole had before it a bill 
to create a government for Oregon, and several 
anti-slavery amendments had been offered when 
Mr. Tuck moved to strike out the pro-slavery 
words "with their slaves and other property 
and holding the same within" (Oregon), and 
in support of his motion he proceeded as 



44 

follows : " I can say but little in five minutes ; 
but I desire, sir, to call the attention of 
the committee to the simplicity of the ques- 
tion which is now before the country and 
now under consideration in this House. The 
question has been misrepresented, and by some 
misunderstood. It is alleged that the people 
of the free states seek to impose disabilities 
upon the South, and establish invidious dis- 
criminations, to the prejudice and disadvantage 
of the slave-holding states. But such is not the 
case. We are willing to grant to them all the 
privileges which we ask for ourselves. We are 
for restricting ourselves, them, and everybody 
else from peopling with slaves a country which 
is now free. Southern gentlemen ask us to 
admit them to hold slaves in this territory. 
Sir, we shall not do it. We shall not create 
the iniquitous and hateful power for one man 
to hold another in bondage. If you demanded 
of us to give you the power to sell your own 
children into bondage, you would not complain 
of us for refusing. We shall not be one whit 
the more inclined to grant you power to hold 
the black man in bondage. We ask it not for 
ourselves, and we grant it not to you. 



45 

" Have we been so long separated from our 
constituents as to hesitate whether or not to 
establish slavery in a country now free? If so, 
let us delay the passage of this bill till we again 
assemble. Let the gentlemen of the slave states 
consider whether their constituents demand the 
sacrifice of freedom at their hands. Look at 
the sentiment of Maryland, Delaware, and Ken- 
tucky, before this fatal step be taken. The 
public opinion of the free states, and of several 
of the slave states also, emphatically condemns 
the abominable scheme of extending slavery 
into territory now free. 

" A compromise of this great question has 
been proposed and strenuously advocated. But, 
sir, on this matter of human liberty, involving 
the most sacred principles which can ever be 
entertained, there can and there will be no com- 
promise. The inhibition of slavery in Oregon^ 
California, New Mexico, and all other territory 
which we shall ever possess, is all we demand, 
and the least which can ever be received. No 
other compromise will ever allay the agitation 
which so many gentlemen so much fear. 

" One other thing, sir, must be done before 
we shall realize that universal quiet which is so 



4 6 

much desired ; it is the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia. So long as we are 
doomed to look from the windows of this capi- 
tol upon a mart for trade in slaves, the most 
extensive in the world, so long, if liberty survive, 
will agitation exist in the country. As a con- 
servative member of the House, though called 
fanatical, I tell gentlemen that we shall not see 
any quiet submission while we of the free states 
are compelled, in humble obsequiousness to the 
slave power, to sustain their peculiar institution 
in a district where Congress has ' exclusive 
jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever.' " This 
courageous speech splendidly vindicated the 
New Hampshire bolt, and sustained to the 
utmost the sentiments avowed by Mr. Tuck in 
his letter accepting his nomination. 

The first session of the Thirtieth Congress 
came to an end early in August, 1848, and co- 
incident with its adjournment occurred the Buf- 
falo convention. This assemblage, called as a 
protest to the party conventions that had 
recently nominated Lewis Cass and Zachary 
Taylor, was as spontaneous a gathering as our 
political annals have ever known. It was a 
mass meeting of voluntary delegates, and pro- 



47 

duced a strange assortment of political opinions. 
To that celebrated convention journeyed Amos 
Tuck and his friend Giddings. After complet- 
ing the appointed work by nominating Van Bu- 
ren, the queerly assorted body dispersed, Mr. 
Tuck returning to Exeter, where with urgent 
law cases and more urgent party demands, he 
passed the autumn. The campaign of '48 was 
waged with energy and bitterness, for the de- 
fection of the " Barn Burners " was likely to put 
the Empire State into the Whig column, while 
here in the Granite State, the coalition among 
Whigs, Independent Democrats and Free Soil- 
ers foreboded trouble for the Democrats. 
George G. Fogg, editor of The Independent 
Democrat, a writer of trenchant paragraphs, 
carried away by his hatred of the Whigs, wrote 
articles so bitterly aggressive and personal as to 
offend many of Mr. Tuck's most earnest Whig 
supporters and to call from the Statesman a 
warning to this effect : " The Independent Dem- 
ocrat is displaying a spirit likely to defeat Tuck 
and Wilson, which, if continued much longer, 
will make it impossible for Whigs, having re- 
gard for their own reputations as independent 
men, to aid even in so agreeable work as voting 



48 

for Mr. Tuck, for whom, both as a citizen and a 
member of Congress, they entertain regard. 
The election of Tuck and Wilson was the most 
important work effected by the ' Allied Army,' 
a work not without its effect upon the legisla- 
tion of the country." Such sentiments emanat- 
ing from the leading Whig newspaper in New 
Hampshire had an effect on the ireful Mr. 
Fogg, and at the same time placed Mr. Tuck 
squarely before the people as the inevitable 
Whig candidate for re-election. 

During the second session of the Thirtieth 
Congress, Mr. Tuck kept true to the course he 
had marked out. He offered anti-slavery reso- 
lutions and petitions, participated in current de- 
bates, but made no set speech. In January, 
1849, an incident took place in the House that 
brought Mr. Tuck prominently into national 
notice. It was one of the earliest symptoms of 
the strained relations subsisting between South- 
ern and anti-slavery Northern members of Con- 
gress and the initial act leading to the assault on 
Sumner a few years later. Ex-Governor Brown, 
of Mississippi, subsequently a leader of seces- 
sion, had the floor. Mr. Tuck rose to ask a 
question, when a scene took place, best de- 



49 

scribed by a correspondent of the Philadelphia 
News : "The insult offered by Gov. Brown to 
Mr. Tuck was somewhat extraordinary. Mr. 
Tuck is a gentleman in every sense of the word, 
always dignified and courteous, and gave not 
the least provocation for the sneering reply of 
Gov. Brown to the speaker that he ' believed 
Mr. Tuck was a member.' It will be recollected 
that in reply to this Mr. Tuck said, looking 
Brown directly in the face, ' It is possible for a 
person to take such a course as to put it out of 
his power to insult another member upon this 
floor.' " The News then goes on to relate the 
sequel of that colloquy : " A message was borne 
by Mr. Inge, of Alabama, from Gov. Brown to 
the New Hampshire member demanding retrac- 
tion, which Mr. Tuck refused, with the remark 
that he was ' ready to meet the issue whenever 
it might be called for.' This was rather firm 
language to hold to the Southern members, 
whose honor is so nice — probably much bolder 
than was ever expected of a Northerner." No 
wonder George W. Julian spoke of Mr. Tuck as 
amiable and somewhat feminine in appearance 
but firm in purpose. Having thus established 
his personal courage beyond lingering doubt, 



5o 

Mr. Tuck, in February, showed his innate love 
of peace by offering a carefully prepared reso- 
lution on international arbitration. But he was 
a half century ahead of the time when senti- 
ments such as were embodied in his resolutions 
were to become features in the world's policy. 
With the Mexican war fresh in its memory and 
a sectional war looming before its vision, Con- 
gress was in no humor to espouse the pacific 
and humane principles of the resolution and 
therefore refused to suspend the rules. Not- 
withstanding his temporary defeat, his resolu- 
tion received favorable comment in the news- 
papers and among thoughtful people, and 
stamped him as a public man of broad and 
progressive views. 

In the meanwhile political affairs at home 
demanded Mr. Tuck's earnest attention. In 
the March election of 1849, tne fi fst district 
was again hotly contested. John S. Wells hav- 
ing declined the nomination, the Democrats 
chose George W. Kittredge as the candidate 
to wrest the district from Mr. Tuck. The cam- 
paign was bitterly waged, for the Democrats 
now made most strenuous attempts to achieve 
success. 



5i 

Money and threats were liberally used, all 
to no purpose, for Amos Tuck was a second 
time victor with a safe majority of four hundred 
behind him. Absorbed as he was with politics, 
Mr. Tuck seems to have found time during the 
intermission of Congress to practice his pro- 
fession, both at nisi prius and before the law 
terms. The newspapers of the period note his 
participation in jury trials, while the state re- 
ports show a varied and growing list of cases 
with which he and his partner were connected. 
As a public man his position at this time was 
singular. He was an Independent Democrat 
solely on the slavery question ; on all other 
points he remained a Democrat, yet his strength 
consisted in Whig votes. But so all-embrac- 
ing had the slavery issue become that all 
questions were tinctured with it, therefore 
Tuck's unfaltering attitude respecting it fur- 
nished him with a platform as firm as his New 
Hampshire hills. When the Thirty-first Con- 
gress met in December, 1849, the overshadow- 
ing question was prohibition of slavery in the 
territories. Politics were confused as never 
before. The Whigs had their president, but 
the party was hopelessly split. It was the time 



52 

of the second formative period of parties. 
Coalitions rising from insubordination and irre- 
concilable differences as to party policy marked 
the period. Hale, already in the Senate, was 
now joined by Salmon P. Chase, while in the 
House a most interesting condition had come 
about. The two great parties were so nearly 
equal that the balance of power lay with the 
little cluster of history making men, who, re- 
nouncing allegiance to both parties, had formed 
one of their own. 

That little party had increased from three in 
the previous Congress to upwards of twelve, 
and included men soon to be well known 
throughout the land. Among them were David 
Wilmot, Preston King, James M. Root, and his 
colleague, Giddings, Charles Allen, of Massa- 
chusetts, Durkee, of Wisconsin, George W. 
Julian, of Indiana, and Amos Tuck. First in 
order was the election of speaker, a proceeding 
that precipitated a discussion of slavery and 
kept the House in turmoil for several weeks. 
The Democrats nominated Howell Cobb, of 
Georgia, while the Whigs renominated Robert 
C. Winthrop. In round numbers the Democrats 
had one hundred and eleven members, the 



53 

Whigs one hundred and eight, while eleven 
were classed as Free Soilers. The contest con- 
tinued almost daily till the 22d of December, 
when Cobb was elected by a plurality vote on 
the sixty-third ballot. The Free Soilers, re- 
solved not to support the leading candidates, 
had cast their votes for various members of 
their own organization. As an illustration, Mr. 
Tuck voted as follows : ten times he gave his 
preference to Wilmot, then four times to Root, 
and once to Allen, whereupon he himself 
became the favored one, and received on the 
eighteenth ballot nine votes. Then the Free 
Soilers scattered, some voting for Brown, of 
Indiana, an out and out Democrat, which so 
alarmed his party associates as to put them on 
inquiry, when it was discovered that Brown and 
a few Free Soilers had made an agreement 
concerning the membership of certain com- 
mittees. 

This performance put an end to the irregular 
candidacy of Mr. Brown. But Mr. Tuck, 
seeing a sacrifice of principle in the candidacy 
of the Indianian, had refused to participate in 
its questionable expediency, and remained true 
to his little party, voting now for Julian and 



54 

then for Wilmot and several times for Thad- 
deus Stevens. As the break drew near under 
the plurality rule Tuck, wiser than his associ- 
ates, foreseeing the election of an ultra slave 
holding candidate, voted for Winthrop. But 
the Free Soilers, seemingly indifferent as to 
Cobb's sentiments, were unalterably hostile to 
Winthrop, and throwing away their votes 
allowed the plurality to elect the slave holding 
candidate from Georgia. When the commit- 
tees were announced, Mr. Tuck found that the 
speaker had assigned him to the obscure and 
nominal committee on Revolutionary Pensions, 
and there he remained until the close of his 
congressional career. Although the Globe 
shows that Mr. Tuck was constant in attend- 
ance and frequently presented the old time 
petitions respecting human rights, he did not 
indulge in debate nor make formal speeches, 
as he had done in the former Congress or as he 
was to do in the Congress that followed. 

The Thirty-first Congress surpassed all others 
up to that time in the exciting and paramount 
nature of its labors, for it had before it the 
grave questions respecting slavery in the terri- 
tories, the admission of California, and finally 



55 

the compromise measures. In a personal point 
of view that Congress was remarkable in the 
extent and irreconcilable spirit of its oratory 
and speech making. The famous 7th of March 
speech delivered by Daniel Webster was in 
itself sufficient to make the session a memor- 
able one. How eagerly Mr. Tuck listened to 
such speeches may be readily imagined. He 
followed the debates with the deepest interest, 
for he recognized that they most surely marked 
the parting of the ways, and he saw in them the 
blazing of new paths. In June he attempted 
without success to amend the bounty bill, 
whereby public lands might not fall into the 
hands of speculators, by limiting the holding 
of any person to not more than three hundred 
and twenty acres in any one township, and he 
supported his proposition with cogent remarks. 
During that Congress certain public scandals 
were brought to light. Among them was one 
having reference to the treasury department 
and its use of the surplus fund. On that ques- 
tion Mr. Tuck made some pertinent comments, 
saying that the present Congress would be re- 
garded as peculiar for several things, especially 
charges of malfeasance and misfeasance made 



56 

against the cabinet of the executive and other 
officials of the administration, and arraigning 
the accused in severe words he moved the pre- 
vious question. But in this attitude he found 
himself in a decided minority and the subject 
was given a respite. In June, 1850, when the 
California bill was before the House, Mr. Tuck 
delivered a strong speech in the few minutes 
allowed him. Taking the ground that the peo- 
ple of California had themselves settled the 
slavery question and that the state ought to be ad- 
mitted, he went on to criticise the Senate scheme 
of compromise, which, he said, was fathered by 
men who manufactured public opinion in order 
to cause distraction in the country. " They are 
the men," he exclaimed, " who so loudly pro- 
claim compromise by trying to portray the 
country as bleeding from five mortal wounds. 
The great obstacle to healing those wounds 
was," he said, " to be found in those quack 
doctors who were determined that they should 
not be healed unless through their own nos- 
trums." This little speech, brief as it was, 
placed Mr. Tuck in the front rank of uncom- 
promising opponents of Clay's temporizing 
policy, and marked him as one of the leaders 



57 

of the rapidly growing party of protest. In the 
midst of the exciting session President Taylor 
died, but after a period of mourning, the de- 
bates, gathering renewed vigor, prolonged Con- 
gress into September, when the weary members 
separated for their homes. When one reviewed 
the recent legislation at Washington it seemed 
as if the conservative and pro-slavery forces 
had gained a substantial victory. With the 
passage of the compromise measures people 
generally hoped that the troublesome slavery 
question had been put to rest, but the majority 
had built on false premises, for the fugitive 
slave law was the corner stone of that legisla- 
tion. 

The campaign of March, 185 1, proved to be 
one of unprecedented intensity. All parties 
made every effort to gain congressmen. New 
Hampshire, as usual, was the scene of a battle 
royal. Under the aggressive leadership of 
Franklin Pierce, who had now become the most 
prominent Democrat in New England, a 
supreme effort was made to overthrow Mr. 
Tuck. Pierce saw that the country had its eye 
on New Hampshire, hence he made this fight 
peculiarly his own. To beat Tuck would in- 



58 

deed be a personal victory. Many Free Soil 
Whigs still inclined to the teachings of Daniel 
Webster, who, smarting under the stings of his 
7th of March speech, was waging vigorous war 
against anti-slavery men and calling their dis- 
tricts " laboratories of abolitionism, libel and 
treason." The odds certainly were against Mr. 
Tuck. He had on his hands the hardest fight 
of his career, but the dangers of the situation 
brought out his strength to a surprising degree. 
The canvass waxed hot as March drew near, for 
it was Tuck against the field. Again The States- 
man came out strongly in his support and 
added materially to his resources. In January, 
185 1, it had this to say of its favorite: "No 
better man lives in the district, or one who can 
make a better run. His experience in Congress, 
his talents, his honesty of purpose, all point to 
him as the man. For the past five years he has 
been assailed by the Locofocos, but the arrows 
from their bows have fallen harmless at his feet. 
His course in Congress has been exceedingly 
satisfactory to the friends of liberal principles." 
The district was thoroughly awake with poli- 
tics, and the contest grew personal and bitter, 
yet Tuck and his friends met their opponents at 



59 

every point and fought for every vote. Cha- 
grin, indeed, fell upon the Democracy when the 
returns were counted, for the defeat was much 
greater than Tuck's majority indicated. Dr. 
Kittredge, backed by the party urged on by 
Pierce, received seventy-four hundred and six- 
teen votes to Tuck's seventy-seven hundred and 
ninety-one. In all respects it was a triumph of 
signal significance, while personally it exceeded 
in pleasure and satisfaction either of Mr. Tuck's 
previous elections. The result was received 
with joy throughout New Hampshire and the 
North, for it meant that in one locality at least 
the finality of the slavery compromise had been 
successfully challenged. " All glory," exclaimed 
The Statesman, " to the people of the first dis- 
trict for their sentiments of free soil, free speech, 
free labor, and free men ; and shame and dis- 
honor to Frank Pierce and the desperate hunk- 
ers under his lead." 

Notwithstanding the demands of the cam- 
paign, Mr. Tuck by no means neglected his 
congressional duties; he was remarkably con- 
stant in attendance and took part in several im- 
portant measures pending the home election. 
One among them happened to be the right of 



6o 



Jared Perkins to a seat from the third district 
of New Hampshire. Gen. James Wilson, rep- 
resentative from that district, having accepted a 
government office, resigned his seat in the 
Thirty-first Congress, and a special election had 
taken place to fill the vacancy. The question 
involved was a novel one, inasmuch as the leg- 
islature of the state had changed the district 
since Wilson's election by adding to it four 
towns. Manifestly then the towns voting at 
the special election were not the same towns 
that comprised the district when General Wil- 
son was chosen. The committee on elections, 
unimpressed by this point, voted to seat George 
W. Morrison, the Democratic candidate, where- 
upon Mr. Tuck spoke in behalf of Mr. Perkins. 
Perkins was a Whig of free soil tendencies, 
whom the returns from the original towns 
showed to be elected, while Morrison's vote, in- 
cluding the four recently added towns, appeared 
to elect him. Tuck made several five-minute 
speeches, aided by Van Dyke, of New Jersey, 
Schenck and Giddings, but the House sustained 
the majority report and gave the seat to Mr. 
Morrison. In February, Mr. Tuck vigorously 
opposed the half million appropriation for forts 



6i 



and barracks, vainly trying to cut down the 
sum to one hundred thousand, and giving it as 
his opinion that there was no truth in the 
maxim that a nation should in time of peace 
prepare for war, for such a sentiment, he ex- 
claimed, is only worthy a barbarous age of the 
world, and cannot be sanctioned by the greatest 
names in history, not even by that of Washington. 
During the remaining months between the final 
adjournment and the meeting of the Thirty- 
second Congress in December, 1851, Mr. Tuck 
resumed his law business and tried many cases. 
His partner, William W. Stickney, a lawyer of 
learning and industry, was ever willing to 
lighten Mr. Tuck's burdens, for he believed 
heartily in the great movement then beginning 
to take root in Northern soil. This partnership 
lasted ten years or until 1857. 

The period from 185 1 to 1854 was politically 
quiet so far as the country at large was con- 
cerned, but the quiet was more apparent than 
real, for beneath the surface there were signs 
portending momentous changes in public opin- 
ion. Few, indeed, could read those signs, while 
the mass of people would not read them. The 
period lasting from the Compromise to Doug- 



62 



lass' Nebraska bill, although a short one of 
scarcely four years, may well be called the de- 
lusive period of American history. Whigs and 
Democrats alike were lulled into the belief that 
a finality had been reached in regard to the 
slavery question. This belief gained strength 
and acceptance when the electoral college in 
the middle of that period gave Franklin Pierce 
every state in the Union save four. Super- 
ficially there was a great deal to warrant the 
prevalent feeling, but those that studied the 
popular vote of the Pierce-Scott campaign 
reached a widely different conclusion. Hale's 
Free Soil support of that year was sufficient to 
teach thoughtful observers that conditions were 
not what the majority thought they were. Few 
saw that fact in a clearer light than Amos Tuck, 
who was by no means downcast at the popular 
illusion. When the Thirty-second Congress met 
for organization, Millard Fillmore was the Whig 
President, but the Senate and House were Dem- 
ocratic. Two years had made some very impor- 
tant changes in both houses, the most notice- 
able being the accession of Charles Sumner as 
Senator from Massachusetts in place of Daniel 
Webster, who had become Secretary of State. 



63 

Moses Norris, an ultra Democrat, was the col- 
league of John P. Hale, who was about to yield 
his seat to Charles G. Atherton, the sponsor of 
the former gag law. Tuck's colleagues in the 
House were Charles H. Peaslee, Harry Hibbard, 
and George W. Morrison. Linn Boyd, of Ken- 
tucky, was promptly made speaker, and the 
session began. Mr. Tuck now took a more 
active part in debate than had hitherto been his 
practice. He soon presented petitions bearing 
on slavery, increased mail facilities and internal 
improvements. Among the last was one re- 
lating to the navigation of the Illinois river, 
while another related to the construction of a 
sea wall in Portsmouth harbor. On this he 
spoke, urging the building of a wall reaching 
from Great Island to Goat Island, provided 
such a structure would not increase the current 
at that point. His position concerning govern- 
ment land grants was consistent throughout. 
He opposed such measures as contrary to public 
policy and dangerous to morals. But no mem- 
ber advocated Andrew Johnson's Homestead 
Bill more earnestly or worked more enthusiasti- 
cally for its success than Amos Tuck. As a 
Free Soiler he stood committed to the measure, 



6 4 

for the Buffalo convention of 1848 had made 
the homestead policy a prominent feature in its 
platform. As the Congress wore on Mr. Tuck 
made a variety of speeches embracing some 
widely separated subjects, as, for instance, the 
salaries of judges in Oregon and the question of 
reciprocity. On the former subject, which, by 
the by, never failed to interest him, he spoke 
with earnestness and knowledge, and the subject 
being one free from slavery, the House listened 
attentively, and several members congratulated 
him when he sat down. He uttered manly 
words on the subject, denouncing the unbe- 
coming niggardliness of the salaries, and took 
occasion to show that as wages then were a 
bootblack commanded more money in twelve 
months than a judge of the territorial courts. 
He concluded by saying: "If we are worthy 
to legislate for those distant lands we should 
consider their peculiar circumstances, and make 
our laws accordingly. If we govern ourselves 
by such false notions of economy as to put our 
judges below a bootblack or a wood-sawyer in 
the way of pay, we demonstrate to the people 
of the Territories that we do not understand 
their condition." 



65 

The debate on reciprocity occurred in Au- 
gust, 1852, and extending over several days, cov- 
ered a wide range of topics and elicited a wider 
range of opinions. To Mr. Tuck the subject 
was a familiar one, because he had given time 
to its study ; therefore he spoke with the voice 
of an authority. This speech, the result of 
study and reflection, was carefully prepared 
and well delivered, and ranks among the best 
speeches on reciprocity, and it may be profita- 
bly perused at the present time when the same 
great question is engaging public attention. 
He began by saying that reciprocity was not a 
party question nor a Canadian question, but an 
American question. Then he proceeded to 
show the advantages arising from reciprocity, 
supporting his argument with an abundance 
of facts and carefully marshalled statistics, 
arranging everything so attractively and logi- 
cally as to bring out the heartiest encomiums 
from his hearers. No speech ever made by 
Mr. Tuck showed in stronger light his real capac- 
ity for public life. It showed his earnest inves- 
tigation of the whole subject, his painstaking 
and orderly arrangement, his fairness in state- 
ment, his zealous conclusions, and his wide and 



66 



comprehensive views respecting the economic 
policy of the country. The speech was re- 
ceived with sincere and genuine comments 
both from within Congress and without, giving 
pleasure alike to Mr. Tuck and his many 
friends. 

Mid-way in the first session of the Thirty- 
second Congress were held the national con- 
ventions of the great political parties which 
presented as presidential nominees Franklin 
Pierce and General Scott. In Congress, as in 
the country at large, enquiries began to be 
made respecting the nominee of the Democrats. 
As to the Whig candidate, there was no uncer- 
tainty concerning his robust identity, for every- 
body knew Winfield Scott. But General Pierce 
was a personality that roused the deepest curi- 
osity. To the vast majority of Americans his 
name was heard for the first time when the 
Baltimore convention decreed his nomination. 
The consequence was that New Hampshire 
men advanced to a premium in the marts of 
public enlightenment, and this was emphati- 
cally so in Washington. Who is Franklin 
Pierce? was heard day after day in hotel lob- 
bies, in the streets, and in Congress. One day 



6 7 

in July, 1852, when the house was discussing 
the Indian Appropriation bill, there took place 
one of those running debates that have no ref- 
erence or germaneness to the question before 
the House, and a colloquy sprang up concern- 
ing this New Hampshire candidate for the 
presidency. The touchstone, however, in this 
instance was religious toleration, for it may be 
remembered that New Hampshire had held a 
Constitutional Convention in 1850, over which 
Mr. Pierce presided. Among the questions 
discussed in the convention was one respecting 
the eligibility of Roman Catholics to hold office. 
While the convention voted to remove such 
disabilities, the people at large refused to ratify 
the amendment, and so the benighted but 
cheerfully disregarded clause remained in the 
constitution of the state until 1877. 

So it came to pass that Franklin Pierce and 
his attitude toward religious freedom became 
the subject of a spirited debate. Mr. Olds, of 
Ohio, began the battle by eulogizing Pierce, 
whom he compared to the eminent men of the 
Republic. Other speakers followed, some with 
praise, others with censure and ridicule, when 
Hiram Bell, an Ohio Whig, taking the Catholic 



68 



situation in New Hampshire as his text, pro- 
ceeded thus to have his say: "I have got the 
gentleman (Mr. Olds) where the shoe pinches. 
The truth of the matter is this : I have heard 
such a thing as Mr. Pierce's opposition to Cath- 
olics rumored in the public papers. I have 
heard it since his nomination. But I hope, in 
the name of patriotism, that Franklin Pierce 
condemns in his heart that spirit of intolerance. 
I do not say that he has not condemned it. 
But if he has, why did not my colleague tell 
this committee so ? Why did he not state this 
matter before the committee? Why did he not 
state the principles of General Pierce, instead 
of making those random charges against Gen- 
eral Scott? Why did he not tell us his princi- 
ples? Does he think the people of this coun- 
try are prepared to vote for a man without 
knowing his principles? That would be a fair 
inference from his argument." 

Mr. Polk. — " I do not desire that the charge 
of the gentlemen from Ohio (Mr. Bell) should 
go out unanswered, or without being accompa- 
nied by a proper explanation. No longer than 
two years ago the people of New Hampshire 
called a convention for the purpose of amend- 



69 

ing the constitution of the state. Mr. Pierce 
was a member of that convention, and voted to 
abolish that feature of the constitution upon 
which the gentleman has commented. It was 
stricken out by a majority of the convention. 
But the constitution, to be ratified, required 
two-thirds of the votes of the people. There 
are more than one-third of the people of New 
Hampshire Whigs. They voted against the 
ratification of the constitution, and thereby 
prevented the alteration of that feature which 
the gentleman now complains of." 

Mr. Tuck. — "If the gentleman from Tennes- 
see says that the Whigs of New Hampshire 
voted against the new constitution, he asserts 
what is not true." 

Mr. Polk. — "I wish to understand the gen- 
tleman. I stated that more than one-third of 
the people of the state voted against the con- 
stitution, and that if the Whigs of the state 
voted against it, it was not Mr. Pierce's fault. 
What does the gentleman mean? Does he 
mean anything personal? Does he mean to 
allege that I have stated anything untrue?" 

Mr. Tuck. — "Certainly I intended nothing 
personal. I mean to say that the gentleman 



70 

has stated as truth that which is not correct. 
His reason for making the statement, I pre- 
sume, was that he had been misinformed, or 
that he had not taken the necessary trouble to 
inform himself." 

Mr. Polk. — "My remark was that more than 
one-third of the people of New Hampshire 
were Whigs ; and if more than one-third voted 
against the ratification, as submitted to them 
by the convention, they were the responsible 
parties for preventing that alteration of the 
constitution from being made, and not General 
Pierce, and those who advocated and effected 
the repeal in the convention." 

Mr. Tuck. — "That, Mr. Speaker, changes 
the gentleman's statement entirely." 

Mr. Polk. — "The gentleman misunderstood 
me or he could not have listened." 

Mr. Tuck. — "I understood the gentleman to 
say that more than one-third of the people of 
New Hampshire were Whigs, and that they 
voted against the new constitution. That is an 
error ; and I will further state that many of the 
Whig towns threw the strongest votes in favor 
of the new constitution that were thrown in 
any part of the state." 



7i 

Mr. Polk. — "Will the gentleman answer me 
a question? I wish to know if the gentleman 
from New Hampshire does not know that Mr. 
Pierce was in favor of the repeal of that fea- 
ture of the constitution of his state, and if he 
does not know that he made a speech in favor 
of its repeal in the convention which formed 
the new constitution?" 

Mr. Tuck. — "Upon that subject I will say 
that I was here during the session of the con- 
vention which formed the new constitution of 
New Hampshire. I have no other means of 
informing myself upon the subject than the 
public newspapers, and those are equally open 
to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Polk) ! " 

Toward the end of Mr. Tuck's last Congress, 
the House became engaged in a long and at 
times acrimonious debate on the fishery ques- 
tion, a subject well calculated to bring to the 
front not only the two opposing schools of 
political economy, but sectional prejudice as 
well, and that occasion proved to be no excep- 
tion to the rule. In view of the subsequent 
course of Mr. Pierce's administration the record 
of the debate makes interesting reading. But 
the circumstances attending the discussion made 



72 

the episode peculiarly significant. When the 
debate took place the inauguration of the New 
Hampshire President was scarcely a month 
away. Therefore the free discussion of the sub- 
ject might tend to embarrass the incoming gov- 
ernment, a fact recognized by the Democratic 
majority. But the question once broached 
would not be stayed, and so speech followed 
speech until the end. Mr. Tuck spoke on the 
22d and 23d of February, holding the House 
each time by the cogency and earnestness of 
his words. Like the speech made by him in 
August of the previous year, he went into the 
subject of reciprocity at length, though by no 
means repeating what he had already said, and 
concluded in these words : " I wish to make 
one remark in reference to my own views on 
the subject of protection. I believe that pro- 
tection is a temporary policy. I have never 
believed that it would be a permanent policy. 
There is no need of our protecting ourselves 
against Canada. There is no need of our pro- 
tecting ourselves against any country that lies 
conterminous to us upon this continent. And, 
sir, I would give my support today for a great 
system which should deserve the name of an 



73 

American system of free trade in respect to 
countries that lie adjacent to us. But we can- 
not adopt that policy in reference to the coun- 
tries of Europe, where labor and money are 
cheap, and I am happy to know that there are 
no gentlemen in the country who argue with 
any great appearance of seriousness for such a 
policy." Such were Mr. Tuck's views on the 
great question of protection and its kindred 
ally, reciprocity, a few years before the passage 
of the Morrill act and many years before Mr. 
Blaine's pan-American policy. 

With the inauguration of President Pierce 
Mr. Tuck's congressional career of six years 
came to a close and he returned gladly to Exe- 
ter and his law business. Few congressmen 
had quit Washington with a better and more 
consistent past than Amos Tuck ; he had gone 
thither with independence under his hat, and in 
like manner he had departed. Spurned by 
many of his colleagues because of his opinions 
on slavery, he was hated by the leaders of his 
old party at home because of what they called 
his apostacy. He had dared to stand alone 
when many quailed. When tried he had not 
faltered, nor had he shirked responsibilities. 



74 

He had lived to behold a rapid and permanent 
change in the political sentiment of his state 
and to find recruits looking up to him for 
leadership and organization. With the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise the opportunity 
soon came, bringing in its wake an army of 
resolute and conscientious men to protest by 
voice and deed against the aggressions of 
slavery. It has already been stated that Mr. 
Tuck saw clearly the under-currents of the 
North respecting the one paramount and over- 
whelming question of slavery, and he had given 
ceaseless thought to the subject. His release 
from Congress brought him closer to the peo- 
ple he had served so well, and he now set 
about directing the movement which he knew 
to be inevitable. 

He had accomplished much with few tools ; 
he was now to accomplish more with imple- 
ments better adapted to the work. He had 
conferred lasting distinction on his state and 
his name has the right to be carved with that 
of John P. Hale as New Hampshire's earliest 
champion of the cause of human freedom. 
He was now to perform an act which entitles 
him to historical remembrance. If not Amos 



75 

Tuck, who was the man that gave the name 
Republican to the forces gathering to resist 
slavery? As a Free Soiler, the evidence is 
conclusive as to his priority of action regard- 
ing anti-slavery, nor is evidence wanting to 
prove his early action respecting the party 
name of Republican. Late in September, 
1853, Mr. Tuck wrote this letter to Dr. Batch- 
elder, of Londonderry: 

Dear Sir : We deem it advisable to hold an informal meet- 
ing composed of some of the principal members of the parties 
of this place (Exeter) on the 12th of October, at Maj. Blake's 
Hotel. One of the principal objects of this informal meeting 
is to fix on a plan of harmonizing the different party organiza- 
tions, whereby a more united co-operation can be secured, and 
the four parties may pull together under one title of organiza- 
tion. Hale, McFarland and Fogg will be present. 
Yours respectfully, 

Amos Tuck. 

The informal meeting was held and there it 
was, according to Dr. Batchelder, that Mr. 
Tuck suggested that the comprehensive name, 
Republican, be given to the elements that were 
to constitute the new party. This, be it noted, 
antedated by several months the mass meeting 
held at Ripon, Wisconsin, that adopted the 
same name. Mr. Tuck entered energetically 



7 6 

into the activities of politics, speaking on the 
stump and contributing in every way toward 
building up the young party. Gradually and 
firmly the new movement overspread New 
Hampshire, aided materially by the vigorous 
efforts of the short-lived "Know Nothings," 
who served as a medium to transform anti-slav- 
ery Whigs and Democrats into full fledged 
Republicans. Democratic ascendency in New 
Hampshire came to its end in 1854, as that 
was the last year that the Democrats elected a 
Governor and a Legislature. The Senate that 
year had a safe Democratic majority, but in the 
House Francis R. Chase, a Democrat, was 
chosen speaker by just the requisite vote. 
How complete the disruption of the party had 
become was seen that session in the fruitless 
attempts to choose United States Senators. 
The law as it then stood compelled each house 
to choose separately, and it so happened that 
there were two senators to be chosen, one to 
fill out the unexpired term of Charles G. Ath- 
erton, who had lately deceased, and the other 
for the full term as successor to Moses Norris. 
After several trials, each showing the hopeless 
minority of the regular Democrats, it was voted 



r 



77 

to indefinitely postpone the elections. The 
following year brought utter rout to the party 
of President Pierce, inasmuch as Governor and 
Legislature were made up of the Know Noth- 
ing, Free Soil and anti-slavery opposition which 
sent James Bell, Mr. Tuck's old law partner, 
and John P. Hale to the national Senate. 

During the June session of that year Mr. 
Tuck was a frequent visitor to Concord, where 
among the leaders his counsel was much sought, 
owing to the peculiar situation inseparable from 
the recent political changes. Among the im- 
portant pieces of legislation was the bill to reor- 
ganize the judiciary, a subject, as we have seen, 
always of intelligent interest to Mr. Tuck. 
Foreseeing the necessity of change, he had 
written an article published in the News-Let- 
ter, in April, setting forth his views. After 
considerable discussion, as is certain to happen 
whenever a judicial system is to be altered or 
abolished, the legislature evolved a plan differ- 
ing in some respects from Mr. Tuck's ideas 
while agreeing with them in many points. One 
feature advocated by him was received with 
great favor and adopted, namely, the doing 
away with the ridiculous practice of side judges 



73 

or the " flower pots," as the irreverent termed 
them. 

The next public appearance of Mr. Tuck 
was in June, 1856, when he was one of the 
prominent members of the American Republi- 
cans of New Hampshire, who assembled at 
Concord to choose delegates to the National 
Convention to be held at Philadelphia on the 
17th of the month. Mr. Tuck called the meet- 
ing to order, and after George W. Nesmith had 
been chosen president, Mr. Tuck read the reso- 
lutions, which were of the sterling character 
that one had the right to expect of their author 
in chief. Freedom was the main issue and the 
new party was committed against slave labor 
and slave institutions in the free territories. 
The resolutions had the merit of honest brev- 
ity, for the new party at that time had nothing 
to explain or modify, and they closed by 
endorsing Fremont, "the man of the hour, as 
one eminently fitted to rally the united vote of 
a united people and bring back the government 
to the early policy of its fathers." 

John P. Hale, ex-Governor Kent, of Maine, 
James W. Nye, afterward senator from Nevada, 
and others addressed the convention, after which 



79 

Mr. Tuck, William M. Weed, Daniel Clark, and 
Levi Chamberlain were chosen delegates at 
large, together with district delegates, compris- 
ing such men as George G. Fogg, Austin F. 
Pike, Isaac W. Smith, John M. Parker, and Levi 
W. Barton. In the enthusiastic Quaker City 
convention, the first held by the Republicans, 
Mr. Tuck served as vice president. 

This celebrated convention is thus described 
by one of the most eminent of living histori- 
ans : "The delegates who met at Philadelphia 
the 17th of June were not chosen by means of 
complicated party machinery. In their selec- 
tion there had been no strife. Other conven- 
tions have had more prominent and abler men, 
but no national political convention of a great 
party was ever composed of such a proportion 
of sincere, unselfish and patriotic citizens as 
that which began its deliberations on this anni- 
versary day of Bunker Hill." 

Mr. Tuck by this time was regarded by the 
people as a public man, which was true in the 
commonly accepted meaning of the term. He 
was a public man and he cherished the public 
man's ambitions of further preferment. Yet 
there was another side to his life full of useful- 



8o 



ness and endeavor; the educational side. It 
was there that he appeared at his best. He 
possessed that inborn love of schools and 
schoolmen that made him a valued friend and 
rare adviser. Phillips Academy knew him as 
trustee during a period extending from 1853 to 
his death, yet he was not an alumnus of the 
school. With Hampton and Dartmouth the 
case was not parallel, inasmuch as those insti- 
tutions had a mother's claim on the son, yet so 
well balanced was his affection and appreciation 
that every trust received from him a faithful 
measure of devotion. At the time of Mr. 
Tuck's decease he occupied a unique place 
among his New Hampshire contemporaries. 

Charity, too, was a part of his nature, not 
that charity, however, that is called lavish and 
sounding, but rather that delicate and refined 
giving whereof the left hand knoweth not. Mr. 
Tuck was one of Exeter's foremost citizens, one 
who had conferred fame and honor on the town 
of his adoption. With interests and calls so 
varied he arduously practiced his profession, 
for he so distributed his work by applying 
system to business affairs and public duties 
that he was enabled to accomplish much with- 
out friction and weariness. 



8i 



In the meanwhile he was giving thought to 
the political condition of the country. The 
bloodshed and violence taking place in Kansas 
gave him great uneasiness, for he instinctively 
interpreted it to mean a perilous situation later 
on. It would be perverting biography and at 
the same time be doing a gross injury to the 
memory of Amos Tuck to call him an aboli- 
tionist. Conservative and conciliatory, shun- 
ning the rudeness of life, averse to disorder 
and withal an active lawyer and a student of 
the Constitution, he was opposed to the declara- 
tions and deeds of the Garrison-Phillips school, 
for he hoped that, secure in their constitutional 
rights, the slaveholders would cease their dan- 
gerous aggressions on territory already dedi- 
cated to freedom. He recognized that slavery 
existed by constitutional compromise and 
municipal law, and so holding, he disapproved 
of violent methods and lawless acts as calcu- 
lated to break the peace. By temperament he 
was not a radical. But as events crowded on 
events, and he saw Sumner struck down, Kansas 
invaded and liberty repressed by federal bay- 
onets, he could not remain insensible to the 
approaching crisis. And yet even to the last 



82 



hour of the old Union he hoped that patriotism 
would insist on mutual concessions, fair and 
strong enough to arrest widening differences. 
As one of the earnest leaders of the Republican 
party, the approaching national convention of 
i860 gave him an opportunity for serious re- 
flection. He doubtless saw that the contest lay 
between Seward and the field, yet he had mis- 
givings concerning the expediency of nominat- 
ing the New York candidate. 

Among the strongest of Mr. Tuck's traits 
was a fine sentiment of loyalty to New Hamp- 
shire, and we get a glimpse of that trait in con- 
nection with the Chicago convention. Person- 
ally he was acquainted with Seward, Lincoln, 
Chase, Bates, and other candidates prominently 
mentioned for the presidency, yet with Chase 
he was, perhaps, on closer and more apprecia- 
tive terms than with any of the others. Their 
friendliness went back many years ; they were 
graduates of the same college, they were both 
Free Soil Democrats and had come into Re- 
publican fellowship with sentiments and opin- 
ions singularly alike. But there was still another 
tie between him and Chase, and that was 
Chase's New Hampshire nativity. That cir- 



83 

cumstance weighed much with Mr. Tuck and 
makes the incident a praiseworthy one in his 
life. 

Just before the New Hampshire March elec- 
tion of i860, Abraham Lincoln, being in the 
East, journeyed to Exeter where his son Robert 
was a student at Phillips Academy. From 
Exeter the distinguished Illinoisian was per- 
suaded to visit Concord and Manchester, where 
he made speeches that in their turn made sin- 
cere admirers. The Concord speech in partic- 
ular contributed greatly to mould public senti- 
ment throughout the state in Mr. Lincoln's 
favor. Strongly and surely that sentiment 
grew, yet, recognizing the importance of the 
great work before the convention, there was no 
attempt in New Hampshire to pledge the dele- 
gates to any candidate. Mr. Tuck must have 
perceived that Lincoln and Seward were the 
favorites, while Chase, notwithstanding his lofty 
statesmanship and New Hampshire birth, had 
but slight following. 

On the 26th of April, i860, the Republican 
state convention met at Concord, and after 
listening to the usual speeches and resolutions, 
chose Edward H. Rollins, Aaron H. Cragin, 



8 4 

William Haile, and Amos Tuck as delegates-at- 
large to the approaching convention. A few 
days later, on Wednesday the 16th of May, the 
second Republican national convention as- 
sembled in the Wigwam at Chicago. Mr. 
Tuck was assigned to the committee on resolu- 
tions, where among his associates he found 
George S. Boutwell, Francis P. Blair, Carl 
Schurz, John A. Kasson, and Horace Greeley. 
On the second day the committee submitted its 
platform, and on the third day the balloting for 
President and vice-President took place. On 
the first ballot New Hampshire gave Lincoln 
seven, Seward one, Fremont one, and Chase 
one. Faithful to friendship, Amos Tuck cast 
his ballot for Salmon P. Chase. On the second 
trial Lincoln received nine votes, including that 
of Mr. Tuck, while Seward had one, and this 
count remained unchanged on the third and 
final ballot, when it became plain that Lincoln 
was nominated, whereupon Edward H. Rollins, 
chairman of the delegation, rose to correct New 
Hampshire's vote by making it unanimous. 
Toward the close of the last session of the con- 
vention Mr. Tuck offered a resolution appoint- 
ing the president of the convention and the 



85 

chairmen of the state delegations a committee 
to notify Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Hamlin of their 
nominations, and shortly afterward the famous 
convention adjourned sine die. A few days 
later, in accordance with that vote, the com- 
mittee, headed by George Ashmun, repaired to 
Springfield on its agreeable mission. Among 
the gentlemen accompanying the delegation 
was Mr. Tuck, who warmly congratulated the 
nominee and received in return the hearty 
thanks of his old friend of the Thirtieth Con- 
gress. 

Returning to New Hampshire, we next see 
Mr. Tuck as the principal speaker at a Lincoln 
and Hamlin ratification meeting held in the 
Exeter town hall on Friday the 1st of June. 
Introduced in graceful words by Charles H. 
Bell, the presiding officer, Mr. Tuck spoke 
upwards of an hour, describing the convention 
and its lively scenes, giving vivid sketches of its 
chief actors and analyzing in clear and pictur- 
esque terms the varied influences that led to the 
nomination of Mr. Lincoln. In the exciting 
campaign that ensued Mr. Tuck took a more 
than active part, speaking and counselling, 
visiting headquarters and keeping in close 
touch with passing events. 



86 



No sooner had the election been declared 
than he saw with a heavy heart the mad course 
of the South making straight for secession and 
rebellion. A man whose peaceful nature was 
as religion to him, Mr. Tuck was anxious and 
determined to find some way whereby the 
horrors of war might be averted, therefore he 
hailed with profound thankfulness the proposi- 
tion of the Peace conference. Virginia, which 
had so much to do in making the Constitution, 
now came forward, hoping to save it. In com- 
pliance with the invitation of that common- 
wealth Governor Goodwin appointed as the 
New Hampshire delegates Amos Tuck, Asa 
Fowler, and Levi Chamberlain. Cheerful, 
despite his gloomy apprehensions, Mr. Tuck 
resolved to do his utmost to compose the peril- 
ous differences then existing, and the records 
of the conference published by Mr. Chittenden 
show how ably and persistently he did his duty. 
No doubt now remains that neither that confer- 
ence nor a thousand like it could have arrested 
the course of secession ; the disease had pro- 
gressed too long and too far to yield to human 
treatment and naught was left save the frightful 
test of battle. However, the attempt was sub- 



§7 

limely patriotic and adds a splendid chapter to 
our annals. The meetings began early in Feb- 
ruary, 1 86 1, with ex-President Tyler in the 
chair. The history of the conference is a sad 
reiteration of impossible measures having for 
their sole object the preservation of peace, yet 
all turned to ashes. When one scans the great 
names comprising the membership of the con- 
ference, names illustrious for glowing deeds and 
noble utterances, names identified with the his- 
toric periods of the nation, one can well com- 
prehend the irreconcilable differences between 
the North and South. There were many plans 
offered and many suggested, one of the best 
among them coming from Mr. Tuck. 

It was in the form of an address and three 
resolves and attracted much attention. The 
address directed to the people of the United 
States deplored the divisions and distractions 
afflicting the country and, deprecating secession 
and violence, insisted " that the Constitution 
properly understood and fairly enforced is 
equal to every exigency." The resolves went 
on to declare that the Constitution gave no 
power to Congress to interfere with slavery in 
any of the states, nor was either of the great 



parties in favor of an amendment looking to 
such interference ; that when the rights guaran- 
teed to states under the Constitution are im- 
paired by the people of any other state, then 
full and adequate redress ought to be provided 
for such grievances, and finally that the Con- 
vention recommend legislatures to request 
Congress to call a convention to amend the 
Constitution so as to cure such wrongs. Fair 
and comprehensive as these resolutions appear, 
the conference rejected them by a state vote of 
eleven to nine. 

Before the conference had progressed very 
far it became evident to Mr. Tuck and his New 
England colleagues that slave interests were 
the paramount purpose of the gathering, in 
fact, so pronounced had the pro-slavery tone 
grown not alone among the Southerners but 
among certain Northern delegates as well that 
Mr. Tuck, in spite of his love of peace, was 
forced out of self respect to speak boldly and 
manfully. Peace conference it might be, but 
there were moments when violence similar to 
that witnessed in Congress seemed imminent. 
When Lot M. Morrill and David Dudley Field 
said that unless the government used coercion 
it would be disgraced and destroyed, that there 



8 9 

could be no middle ground, and that the country 
must be kept unbroken, the storm burst. At 
that juncture Mr. Tuck made one of those firm 
but conciliatory speeches so characteristic of 
him. 

Alluding to the conflicting claims of patriotism 
and fraternity on the one side and principle and 
conscience on the other, and declaring that 
never before had he listened to appeals more 
eloquent, he added : " But we cannot act other- 
wise than we do. Ideas and principles control, 
and we, and those we represent, will act in 
accordance with them, whatever be the conse- 
quences." When a man whose very soul was 
the mirror of peace was forced to utter sentiments 
such as these the name Peace Conference lost 
its significance. 

In a few days the members dispersed to their 
homes, some to fight against the Union, some 
to fight for it. Returning to New Hampshire a 
private citizen, yet recognized as one of the 
prominent leaders of the Republican party, Mr. 
Tuck prepared to resume the practice of his 
profession. But this he never did. 

In the previous December a very interesting 
correspondence had taken place between Abra- 



90 

ham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin respecting 
the selection of a cabinet officer from New 
England. On the 24th of December Mr. Lincoln 
wrote the following letter to Mr. Hamlin : 

" Dear Si?-: I need a man of Democratic antecedents from 
New England. I cannot get a fair share of that element in 
without. This stands in the way of Mr. Adams. I think of 
Governor Banks, Mr. Welles and Mr. Tuck. Which of them 
do the New England delegation prefer? Or shall I decide 
for myself? " 

This interesting incident is thus described in 
the recent biography of Hannibal Hamlin : "Mr. 
Lincoln knew both Mr. Tuck and Mr. Welles. 
They were prominent men and had powerful 
friends to plead their claims. Mr. Tuck had 
ably represented New Hampshire in Congress 
for several terms, was well known and highly 
respected by the anti-slavery people. Mr. Welles 
had attained some prominence as an editor, 
legislator and reformer in Connecticut. While 
Mr. Hamlin was free to recommend another 
man, he nevertheless felt under moral obligations 
to select one of the men Mr. Lincoln considered 
available. The President-elect had extended to 
him the unprecedented courtesy of asking him 
to name the New England representative in the 



9i 

Cabinet, and Mr. Hamlin thought that the least 
he could do was to decide on one of the men 
Mr. Lincoln mentioned. Mr. Hamlin knew Mr. 
Tuck well, and highly esteemed him ; in fact, 
they were life long friends, and he did not know 
Mr. Welles except by repute." The choice 
being left to Mr. Hamlin, he endeavored without 
doubt to select the best man for the place. 
Strangely enough one of the influential sponsors 
of Mr. Welles was Mr. Tuck's old friend George 
G. Fogg, who espoused the candidacy of the 
Connecticut editor with characteristic zeal and 
persistency. Another potent factor in favor of 
Mr. Welles was found in his newspaper con- 
nections, for being an editor he attracted the 
support of brother journalists, which was of no 
small advantage in a close contest. The result 
was the appointment of Mr. Welles, whose career 
in the navy department during the greatest land 
and naval war of modern times is now a part of 
our country's history. It may not be improper 
to add that Mr. Hamlin within a twelvemonth 
ceased to have any intercourse with the Secre- 
tary of the Navy and regretted to the end of 
his days that he had been the cause of Mr. 
Welles* preferment. Personally Mr. Tuck es- 



92 

caped a heavy burden by the turn affairs had 
taken, yet to a man of his attainments and 
public experience, together with his genial 
disposition and love of work, the conduct of the 
great office must surely have been to his liking, 
and, had fortune assigned him there, New Hamp- 
shire would have achieved another honor in 
high station. 

But Mr. Tuck's standing in the party and his 
intimate relations with Mr. Lincoln forbade that 
he should be passed by unnoticed, consequently 
his name appeared among the first appointments 
made by the new President. Early in March he 
received at the hands of his friend in the White 
House the appointment as Naval Officer of the 
Port of Boston. This office was and is consid- 
ered next to the best government gift in New 
England and by a curious political custom the 
office has long been conferred on some citizen of 
New Hampshire. The salary was good, the duties 
light and the dignity all that could be desired, 
and in the case of Mr. Tuck there was the agree- 
able condition which he valued beyond all others, 
nearness to home. While as naval officer he 
was precluded from practicing law, his other 
occupations suffered no interruption. He found 



93 

opportunity to visit the educational institutions 
of which he was a trustee, for it was his practice 
never to avoid contributing his time and means 
to the welfare and improvement of his trusts. 

Along in the midst of the rebellion Mr. Tuck 
was brought face to face with a condition then 
existing at Dartmouth College which compelled 
him to act with firmness, however disagreeable it 
may have been. To the present generation the 
civil war and the bitterness it caused here at 
home must ever remain a sealed chapter, but 
to the patriotic men and women of that period 
the sting of pro-slavery and disunion utterances 
became fearfully exasperating. It so happened 
that Nathan Lord, president of Dartmouth, 
firmly believing in the truthfulness of his 
opinions respecting negro slavery and the causes 
of the rebellion, wrote and spoke on the subject 
in a manner utterly at variance with the senti- 
ments prevailing in the North. 

Considering the place and time, President 
Lord's teachings assumed an unwonted offense 
in the mind of the public and directed toward 
the college an increasing ill will. Standing 
boldly on his right as a moral teacher, Presi- 
dent Lord unfolded the relations and obli- 



94 

gations of man to his Maker in a way heartily 
distasteful to the students, the alumni, the 
faculty, and the public. At last the trustees took 
action. In July, 1863, Mr. Tuck read to his 
associates some resolutions lately adopted by a 
well known religious conference which contained 
this resolve : " That we cherish a sincere regard 
for its (Dartmouth's) venerable president, but 
we deeply regret that its welfare is greatly 
imperilled by the existence of a popular preju- 
dice against it, arising from the publication and 
use of some of his (the president's) peculiar 
views touching public affairs, tending to embar- 
rass our government in its present fearful struggle 
and to encourage and strengthen the resistance 
of its enemies in arms, and that in our opinion 
it is the duty of the trustees to seriously inquire 
whether its interests do not demand a change 
in the presidency." The resolutions were then 
referred to a committee of trustees consisting of 
Mr. Tuck, the Reverend Nathaniel Bouton and 
Ira A. Eastman. The situation was anything 
but agreeable and called for tactful management. 
Mr. Tuck was the last man in the world to deny 
to others the measure of free speech which he 
himself had so conspicuously fought for, yet on 



95 

the other hand he saw how injurious such speech 
had become. The trustees had the power forth- 
with to remove President Lord, an act that 
would have been applauded throughout the 
land, but Mr. Tuck hesitated to recommend 
action that in his opinion would have been 
unjust. Therefore he and Dr. Bouton met the 
difficulty in another way whereby the desired 
result was reached without leaving on the 
college records a vote inimical to personal 
liberty. 

Deploring the present conditions and dis- 
avowing the sentiments of the president touching 
slavery and the war, the committee expressed 
the hope that the college would not be adjudged 
a partisan institution and went on to say that it 
would be impracticable and unwise to set forth 
the reasons which led the committee not to 
propose to the trustees any action looking to 
the removal of Dr. Lord. In conclusion the 
committee after stating its views of the war then 
raging recommended that the resolutions of the 
conference together with the committee's report 
and suggestions be liberally circulated by the 
treasurer of the college. On hearing the report 
President Lord asked leave to withdraw for a 



9 6 

few moments and soon returning read a com- 
munication to the trustees expressive of his 
attitude in the premises, claiming a right to 
interpret the Bible in his own way, free from 
strictures of individuals or public bodies, and 
concluded by tendering his resignation. Thus 
was composed a difference that at one time 
threatened the peace and standing of Dartmouth 
and which in the hands of some men might have 
ended in lasting injury to the best college 
traditions. 

With still another institution of learning Mr. 
Tuck was for many years intimately connected 
and gave to it up to the last hour of his life the 
fullest measure of devotion. It is hardly neces- 
sary to say that the institution was the Robinson 
Seminary. He was an original trustee and to 
him was confided the perplexing details of or- 
ganization and the policy of inauguration. How 
well he managed the trust and with what caution 
and intelligence he directed the beginnings of 
the school need not be narrated. As presi- 
dent of the board of trustees his name fills 
a large space in the annals of that progressive 
and successful Seminary. 

Prudence and conservative business relations 



97 

had brought him freedom from pecuniary ap- 
prehensions, thus affording him time and 
opportunity to use his riches wisely and to 
charitable ends. His home life was peculiarly 
a happy one, yet the demands of a widening 
business called him away much too frequently. 
Fond of intercourse with his fellowmen, he de- 
lighted in traveling, visiting distant parts of his 
own country and making several journeys be- 
yond the Atlantic. Business pressed upon him 
more heavily than his advancing age would 
warrant, but he had long been recognized as a 
singularly successful man of affairs, and the 
result was overwork. The concerns of railroads 
and the larger questions of finance began to 
engross his time, yet he never permitted them 
to push aside the serenity which was a part of 
his nature or to obscure his view of life. From 
1870 to 1873 he resided in St. Louis, holding 
the office of land commissioner of the St. 
Louis and San Francisco railroad, a company 
in which many of his personal friends were 
interested and of which a life long friend was 
president. 

In 1 874-1 875 he passed much of his time in 
New York, where he was interested with Austin 



98 

Corbin in the early development of the Manhat- 
tan Beach railroad and other properties. But 
public questions were as interesting as ever and 
so were higher politics ; parties did not escape 
his honest criticism, nor did the men escape who 
made parties their personal perquisites. As the 
last days drew near a merciful Providence con- 
cealed the fatal moment as a seeming concession 
to a favorite child whose career had been of so 
much good to those around him. Business with 
its multiplying phases, the careful administration 
of educational and private trusts, the calls of 
charity — all pressed upon him in those last years. 
Fortune had been pleased to smile along his path- 
way, and never more benignly than as evening 
fell. Nature with gracious mood preserved his 
faculties unimpaired and permitted him to survey 
the past in clear and calm contemplation. In 
the companionship of associates who had borne 
with him the heat of the day, he recalled the 
deeds of his eventful career ; the stormy period 
of party revolt, the acerbities of politics and the 
lights and shadows of what followed. But 
happier far in the cheering presence of his 
townsmen and neighbors, in the church and in 
the home his declining hours were passed 



99 

and when the end came with such appalling 
suddenness on the nth of December, 1879, it 
found Amos Tuck in full preparation for the 
journey. 




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